The invention relates to a packaging for an element with a thin, elongated portion comprising at least two elongated, flexible sheets peripherally adhered to one another and forming between them a space for receiving the element. The two elongated, flexible sheets can form an envelope wherein the element is arranged.
With catheters it is for example known to package them by attaching them first to a plastic or cardboard sheet or tray, and to insert them with the sheet or tray into an envelope. Attachment can take place through punched lips in the cardboard being bent outwardly and the catheter being clamped thereunder. The packaging of a catheter in this way is laborious and time-consuming.
The invention now has for a first object a packaging of the type described above, wherein an element with a thin, elongated part can be packaged in an economical manner.
As another aspect of this invention, it is conventional to open packaging of the type described above by pulling the two elongated, flexible sheets of the package free of one another at one end thereof, thus rupturing the peripheral seal line. Then, when the proximal end of the catheter is exposed, the user grasps the hub or connecting member thereof and pulls the catheter out of the package.
It has been found that catheters packed and opened in this manner can exhibit damage after removal. Particularly, one or more small, flat areas are formed on the distal, curved tip of the catheter. While these flat areas are scarcely visible to the naked eye, they are of a nature that can make rejection of the catheter necessary. For example, if such defects resulted during manufacture of the catheter, the catheter might be rejected as of poor quality.
Since the original, packed catheters are undamaged, but they display such damage after removal from the packaging, it has been concluded that the damage to the catheters occurs between the moment of packaging and the moment following their removal from the packaging.
Thus, a second object of this invention is to provide a blister packaging of the type specified which better protects its contents such as catheters from damage.